American Funds is poised to jump into the ETF field shortly, as is GAMCO Investors.
American Funds requested permission from the SEC to sell exchange-traded funds in July 2014 and then amended its ETF request in October and again last month.
The SEC said Monday that unless major opposition to the launch appears by Feb. 27, it is likely to approve the move.
According to SEC documents, American Funds – which is owned by the Capital Group (CGHC) – plans to launch fixed-income and equity funds, as well as funds of funds and funds that include shares in foreign companies and non-U.S. bonds.
American Funds has roughly $1.2 trillion in assets. The ETF industry includes some $2 trillion in assets.
Those assets, though, are hotly contested. On Monday, State Street (STT) cut fees on 41 of its products. Its SPDR brand is currently the market's No. 3 player, behind BlackRock's iShares and Vanguard.
In a recent report, Cerulli called American Funds "the poster-child active mutual fund manager" and noted that the fund giant plans to launch active and nontransparent active ETFs using Precidian Investments' blind-trust structure.
